Let me be clear: I am one of the SATISFIED 2002 NPGMC Members. Wait, how is that possible, you ask! After spending $100 USD, what have I received in return?

My personal list of benefits is short but sweet:

• One Night Alone piano CD - beautiful, and no one else I know has it.
  
• Presale ticket access to the best concert of my life: One Nite Alone, April 19, 2002 Kodak Theatre, Los Angeles. I'll vividly recall my experience from the "second row" (which was at least two rows ahead of the beginning of the regular front row for this venue (that means: I WAS CLOSE!) for years to come.
  
• Soundcheck access in L.A. - PRICELESS (no charge).
  
• Aftershow performance in L.A. - PRICELESS (no charge).
  
• Information and access to ALL OTHER concert performances (including the current international gigs - hey, I may feel impulsive and join Soulpower in Germany!).
  
• The opportunity to buy passes to the 2002 Celebration - if Prince keeps the Celebration happening, I won't miss it next time, I promise. Without Membership - forget about it.
  
• Access to the entire NPGMC website - hey, improvements here would be welcomed, but I'd still pay at least $20/year to be sure I could cruise the whole site!
  
• And coming soon, a collectors edition of the first ever LIVE Prince 3-CD Box Set (NO EXTRA CHARGE) from the One Nite Alone performances. And I plan to have it before it's available to the general public (who will pay handsomely for it, of course).
  

There you have it. All for $100 USD. To me, it seems like a great deal. By comparison, here are some other things for which I've spent $100 USD (each item!) this year:

• 1 bottle of nice wine...more than once.
  
• 2 lift tix at Squaw Valley USA.
  
• 3 tankfuls of gasoline.
  
• 1 necktie.
  
• a casual dinner for two...too many times to count.
  
• 6 CD's - none of them as good as anything by Prince
  
• membership fees to my credit cards that offer air-travel miles.
  
• 2 haircuts
  
• 6 weeks of the New York Times
  
• 3 car washes

Believe me, the list could go on for a while. I invite my fellow orgers, both the happy NPGMC Members AND the unhappy ones, to share their expectations and experiences when spending $100 USD. Maybe then I'll realize why I should or shouldn't be completely happy with my 2002 Membership.

Peace from TheMax!
[This message was edited Fri Oct 11 22:13:57 PDT 2002 by TheMax]

...but if you include the shipping to the UK and the damned duty tax you have to pay...then not very much!

101 99cent phone calls with 10-10-220---lol@commercials

Your haircuts, "casual" dinners, and car washes are a little expensive. shop around.

$100 about 25 bootleg Prince CD's Money well spent

Much love Pochacco

savoirfaire said:

Actually, I have shopped around, and by comparison, these are very reasonable prices. My point is that $100 may not be the princely sum that it used to be.

The going rate for a man's haircut at a full service salon in San Francisco is $75 (before the tip). I go to a smaller place and get away for $35 before the tip.

My "casual dinners for two" are also competitively priced. Consider 2 courses ($8 - $12 each) for two persons, an inexpensive bottle of wine (<$20), either coffee or dessert ($10), and a tip (rarely <$12) - you're there fast.

And my car washes - well it's $20 MINIMUM for a decent "touchless" or hand wash service in my area. But even that is a rushed job. I spend a little more and add a tip. If you want the car washed AND waxed, you're in it for the full $100. Hey now, please don't suggest that I put my ride into one of those spinning-brush, free-with-your-gasoline-purchase systems to save money!

As Prince likes to say: It's not 1984 anymore.

REDFEATHERS said:

I've never been charged duty tax read feathers. Is it a problem you often have?

Pochacco said:

bootlegs cost $4 nowadays? last I checked they were $20-$25, often higher. And often repackaged older bootlegs with a couple "new" tracks.

My haircut is $17.00 including a tip. It's not a professional stylist, but it does the trick.

Your dinner only added up to $76.00, assuming everything was as much as you said ($10.00 for a dessert?). Plus I give 15% tip, so your $12.00 is a bit high given the circumstances. I know you can easily spend $100.00 on dinner for 2, but to me that's not very casual. Oh wait, you were saying 2 courses for each of the 2 people. Well, that would equal $100.00, but still not my definition of casual.

As for your $30.00 car washes, well, my hand washed car washes are my like $15.00.

This is all in Canadian dollars to, so reduce another 33% off the prices.

Now I'm not cheap or anything, it's not as if money doesn't fly outta my hands faster than I get it.

And I do understand what you're saying, $100.00 isn't much anymore. I'm just having some fun.

The main reason most people joined the NPGMC is to get hold of the 4 exclusive CDs.

$100 for 4 CDs, that's $25 dollars each, so we've got £25 dollars worth so far. If we end up receiving the live CDs for what we are owed, that means this 'box set' has cost us $75 dollars (and really it's been advertised as a 2 cd set with a free bonus aftershow cd - you can't say it's free and then charge for it surely...)

So when it is released in the shops, will it cost $75 dollars? I doubt any casual fan would buy it for that price. And if it is less, then that means we have essentially payed more through the club than if we just bought it off the shelves... That can't be right, can it, just for the priviledge of getting it a month before everyone else?

You could argue that members also pay for the priviledge of buying front area tickets, but those tickets do cost more than the normal tickets anyway. And I assume not every NPGMC member will be able to get to a concert.

I think if we don't get something extra, we're getting a raw deal, I'll guess we'll just after see...

savoirfaire said:

Please see if he or she wants to move to San Francisco!


Yes, the prices are for "two." Definitions of "casual" may vary.


Ouch! No one touches my Lexus in this city at those prices.


Damn, I'd really, really like to.


Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. $100 really isn't that much anymore. I paid to have some ACCESS to Prince. And according to my list of benefits, I think it was a relative bargain.

I should move to Calgary.

Ahhhgh, who want's to read negativeness...
[This message was edited Tue Oct 15 20:55:28 PDT 2002 by FlyingCloudPassenger]

PLEASE PLEASE HELP!!!

I have lost all of my YEAR 1 NPGMC Video files...does anyone know where I can get them from. I have contacted the club but they are unable to help.


Does anyone else think that the NPGMC concert ticket system stinks...it used to be that all members got a chance to get tickets - not just a few people bunking of work buying up tickets to evry gig. I was upstair at the London Apollo and was a little hurt when Prince had the front rows singing "join the club" in our direction. Maybe he thought that the only members in the house were down the front..not true Princey.As Ticketmaster kept denying there was a show on the 5th I was lucky to get tickets at all...it wasnt until the 4th time i got through and spoke to a manager that they would actually sell me tickets for the 5th - suspicious or what!!!

FlyingCloudPassenger said:

Then let me break it down for you. By paying $100, you are given access to EVERY presale for the whole tour, as opposed to only getting access to the performances in your area, or just one performance.

Plain and simple, access is a benefit that we paid for. It seems some want to ignore this benefit and whine about how "each CD costs $25."

FlyingCloudPassenger said:

I hope you get your booklet or your sticker. Getting the Live CD at no additional charge will be the meaningful part for me.

And besides, I wouldn't be surprised if the 3rd disc will be the "extra" disc that you're wishing for; whereas, the first 2 ONA discs could be for general retail release.

FlyingCloudPassenger said:

Never been there. Must be an L.A. thing. Yes, I'd venture to say that when it comes to wine, I'm more sophisticated than you are. However, it doesn't feel like much of an accomplishment. My apologies.

Regarding some of your other humorous insults:

• For me, it's snowboarding, not skiing.
  
• I drive a fuel efficient car, and I feel that gasoline should be more expensive in the US.
  
• The corporate dig is meaningless, but for the record, I also think neckties suck.
  
• If you didn't live in L.A., you might develop a passion for dining out.
  
• Since you seem to spend all your money on dried up shit like Fleetwood Mac and The Who, I'm not surprised you need help with new music.
  
• Regarding haircuts - you're sounding a little biased there.
  
• Wow, $3 for a car wash! I ain't gonna be seen in your ride. I'm very sorry that you require such frugality

Stop trying to make this into a class struggle. We're all charged the same amount for NPGMC membership. I happen to think the price is reflective of the times. It seems that others are living in the past - this is particularly true for someone with Stevie Nicks as his avatar photo.

TheMax said:

xenophobia said:

Make sure u look in the right place

See below...I messed up.
[This message was edited Sun Oct 13 23:22:50 PDT 2002 by FlyingCloudPassenger]

FlyingCloudPassenger said:[quote]

TheMax said:

Yeah...you're really "hip". Snowboarding, Mr. Hip, is still skiing!

I live in the past, present and future. It all makes me and I love it. I love my avatar, I love The Who no matter how much you "hipsters" think it's dried up, I don't care. I simply don't care. I'm sure you love a period of Prince's career. So therefore you may be living in the past. And what is that living in the past? That's not possible. That's some bullshit someone came up with to make others feel bad. I don't feel bad.

I jumped on the Gelsons thing, I realized you are in SF. Yeah, we must be less sophisticated, but I dine out. But I don't spend the amount you do. And I don't eat the bland stuff you must. But I don't know that too, so whatever.

There are less fortunate fans you know. Not all are rich. Some are big fans and really want to see their investments be fruitful. Maybe they sacrificed that hand car wash session or fancy dining out just for Prince's club.

If how a ride looks matters to your "status" then fine. I love my ride. And it maybe a nice car and maybe it's not. It never mattered to me what anyone else said about what kind of car I drove. Never.

I'm keeping an old picture of Stevie as my avatar for whatever time I want. New music, yeah, whatever. Some is great, most REALLY DOES SUCK. People always use the past against you. Like it's bad. It's your history. It's the sounds of your life.

Plus, history repeats itself as you can see in current events.

Most new music is a rehash anyway of past ideas. So really, who's living in the past!? There's a new New Wave style emerging, they digged the past!

Oh, and by the way, I love cats! They rock. So I actually like your avatar very much.

Look, I don't like to get into stupid internet discussion board spats. It's silly. Just that you seemed to come across as an elitist or something and I couldn't help responding. I'm glad you saw my response as humoruous. I actually was laughing at it afterward! Have pleasant tomorrow.

"Live simply so others may simply live."






...

Check this out:
1985 £3.99 (then = $8)
I buy Around the World in a Day LP.
I get more Njoyment and pleasure from this than anything other than Twin Peaks.
1987 £9.99 (then = $18)
I buy Around the World in a Day CD
Joy without a reduction in soundquality and without having to change sides. I even get it to skip Temptation ... which thus makes it the best album ever in the history of the cosmos.
I have $74 left.
= 2 years of NPGMC = $200 = very little Njoyment but a lot of frustration and disappointment.
Now thats what I call inflation.